After having posted the blog, PsychTimes promptly unposted it. The quick turnaround was apparently occasioned by the fear that those named and blamed by Noll for causing the MPD fad might pursue some form of legal action.

Multiple Personality Disorder has always been controversial and contagious. We are lucky that MPD is now in one of its quiescent phases, but it will almost certainly make a comeback before very long. Recurrent false epidemics have occurred several different times during the last century. The trigger is usually either the widespread copy-catting of a popular movie or book, or the fevered preachings of a charismatic MPD guru, or both.

MPD was an extremely popular diagnosis when hypnosis was in vogue 130 years ago; then emerged again 60 years ago when The Three Faces Of Eve became a best-selling book and hit movie; was revived 40 years ago following the vogue of the movie Sybil, and its many imitators; and reached a peak 30 years ago when several thought leaders started conducting weekend workshops all over the country minting an army of poorly trained MPD therapists who suddenly diagnosed and treated it in all their patients.

Having seen hundreds of patients who claimed to house multiple personalities, I have concluded that the diagnosis is always (or at least almost always) a fake, even though the patients claiming it are usually (but not always) sincere.

In every single instance, I discovered that the alternate personalities had been born under the tutelage of an enthusiastic and naive therapist, or in imitation of a friend, or after seeing a movie, or upon joining a multiples' chat group—or some combination. It was most commonly a case of a suggestible and gullible therapist and a suggestible and gullible patient influencing each other in the creation of new personalities. None of the purported cases had had a spontaneous onset and none was the least bit convincing.

Why does MPD keep making its periodic comebacks, despite not being a verifiable or clinically useful mental disorder? My best guess is that the labelling of alters offers an appealing and dramatic metaphor, an idiom of distress. Under the influence, pressure, guidance, and modelling of external authority, suggestible individuals find in MPD a convenient way to describe, explain, and express their conflicting feelings and thoughts. But the metaphor often takes on a dangerous and impairing life of its own, feels all too real to the patient, and contributes to regression, invalidism, and a negative treatment response. And many who present with MPD have a real and treatable psychiatric disorder that is masked by it.

At the height of the most recent fad in the 1990s, it seemed that every third or fourth patient was presenting with a long list of newly developed multiple personalities. The modal number of personalities per patient started multiplying exponentially from just two to 16. The champion in my experience was a middle aged woman who managed to embody 162 distinct alters—including representatives of both genders, all ages, a wide variety of personality types, and some leftovers from previous lives.

MPD presented an insoluble conundrum for me as Chair of the DSM IV Task Force. I was convinced that it was an iatrogenically inspired diagnosis inappropriately inflicted on vulnerable patients by the poorly trained therapists who came away from their silly weekend workshops armed with an MPD hammer that seemed to fit every patient nail. My own inclination was to wise up dumb therapists and protect vulnerable patients by simply omitting MPD from the DSM.

But my hands were tied. We had layed down strict rules requiring high evidentiary standards before any change could be made in DSM IV. This was intended to prevent arbitrary changes by containing the diagnostic exuberance that typified the experts who were engaged in revising the manual. Any suggestion to expand the system required compelling evidence. But this sword cut both ways. Any change to reduce the system—like eliminating MPD—required equally compelling evidence. I couldn't rid DSM IV of MPD because I had to follow my own rules and there was no compelling proof that MPD didn't exist as a meaningful clinical entity. It was only my personal opinion—however certain I was. The best we could do to reduce the popularity of MPD and inspire caution in its diagnosis was to fill its text description with all the cogent arguments against it.

MPD disappeared in the mid-1990s because of its own failures and dangers, not because of anything we did in DSM IV. It was doomed when insurance companies stopped paying for MPD treatments and patients started suing MPD therapists for malpractice.

I have no doubt that MPD will rise again—it always has. Forgetting the past MPD follies is a proven guarantee we will repeat them. Thanks, Dr Noll, for reminding us.

What are you basing that statement on? DID has always been a controversial diagnosis, and more and more clinicians in the field are dismissing it as a fad diagnosis that just tends to be reinforced by preconceptions generated in the media and practitioner bias.

This person is just trying to get published he never studied a person with the symptoms or seen it first hand -it occurs in less than 1 percent of the population-the cause starts from childhood trama-and if goes untreated it grows as the child uses the ability to create personalities to deal with certain tramatic events and as this child grows the personalities take on their own idenity and if the issue is not addressed the personality that is prevelent takes over and lives a period of the persons life-then the next and so on-I am a victum of the disorder and people who have been in my life for over 30yrs have seen the changes from passive to violent behaivor so if you non believers doctors come see me-I have seen over 30 doctors in my life and they all have concluded the idenities exist. And as of this date the state that I live have certified my as disabled due to this condition-rember if you suffer from a mental illness the people that are treating you are nothing but book knowledge you have to find people who have survived the mentall illness that you suffer from-no mental illness effects the same person the same way no medication is perfect

MPD has been called DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder, for several years now. Dr. Frances may not believe in this, but I do. I'm an experienced therapist with clients with DID who were ritualistically abused; I did not give them this notion--it's how they've been victimized and how they've had to live. It happened, and they're dealing with it. My clients with DID switch regularly into other alters, not because they're trying to trick me or anyone else, but because they need "air time." I don't ask them to switch; and I don't delve into the past until someone wants to. When an alter needs to be out in my office, he or she shows up. Seeing a person with DID is like seeing a family; different "members" speak up at different times and for different reasons.
I agree with a previous commenter--Dr. Frances clearly is not knowledgeable about trauma and its possible effects.

I couldn’t agree more. I have treated many individuals who were called multiple personalities. There is no such thing. There certainly are people who have suffered major abuse, significantly sexual, who do dissociate. The treatment is to face and mourn the pain and the person heals. Usually I have had to remove them from some therapist who has been parading them around giving exhibitions, and then get down to work.
Robert A Berezin, MD is the author of "Psychotherapy of Character, the Play of Consciousness in the Theater of the Brain'www.robertberezin.com

YOUR AN IDIOT TO THINK THIS! Maybe the therapist wasn't parading them around but trying help them and studying them because none of the rest of you doctors psychiatrists are doing anything but trying to shove pills down are throat when MPD is not treatable with medication.

No therapist put DID into my head i searched out a therapist because i was suffering! My alter personalities are all but 1 children, and mostly they are afraid to be OUT! They ask questions like " when is Chelle coming back?" These alters do not want to be OUT! Today one of them was in tears waiting for me to come to as she calls it "The front" Why in the hell would i want to "Imagine" these others to come out when they are so very afraid to Be out? All my others only want Chelle (that's me) to come back and take control! I only want to get well. i am a 48 year old woman who has P.T.S.S and only after the extreme trauma did these kids start to come out. Why don't you spend one day in my head dear sir and then tell ME there is no such thing?! I'm not that good of an actress. I can not even imitate their voices to save my life! Also they all have different handwriting, i may be artistic but one alters handwriting is so beautiful i'm actually jealous, i wish i could write as beautifully as she can. I did not ask for this, I have already had more suffering than any person I've ever known. I love "Chelle" i am an interesting, fun, loving, compassionate, witty, artistic, intelligent... Ect... Person, i have no need to pretend to have "alters" inside my head! I do not want or need the attention! I think maybe you are in the wrong profession, I thank God for my therapist and also that i did not find an under educated, non compassionate, asshole like you when i by the Grace of God found my therapist! I wish i could switch at will so that my alter "Brat" could speak to you, i'm sure she would have some adorable things to pound out on these keys to say!

you have stated it very well-the doctors to know how to treat people who suffer from the condition because its very difficult to have your alter ego's to be stimulated-you can't just call them out as you see on tv-I hope that you survive and glad you don't have a violent alter ego-because for the rest of my life i have to be medicated for fear that i will hurt people again-I wish the would challenge me pull that one out the wouldn't have another book to write take care of yourself

So what would be living for 2 years under a new name in a new city while married with two children be? A whoops?

For the record I have been this way for 40 years and have never been "paraded" around by some therapist. It took a year and a dozen different things before it became clear what was going on. I am extremely high functioning and was diagnosed at the top mental health hospital in the Country.

Just because I function in this world differently than you do doesn't mean that my experience is false.

The fact that people still cling to this disastrous fad says a lot about the catastrophic state of psychology and psychiatry. The psychiatrists who put this fraud into their latest's DSM must have suffered from the same psychosis that befell the people in the "The Emperor's New Clothes". Even Hollywood, who loves the myth, is through with that crap since "Primal Fear".

Guess your behind on movies... try Identity, 23, and many others including law and Order SVU and other TV shows..guess you didn't do your research either. Media is still eating it up makes a great thriller movie. Obviously your among the ignorant....

The whole history of DID is ripe with fraud, all the way back to the Sybill fraud. Its funny how DID went from a rare hardly seen disorder to almost an epidemic of people with dozens of "alters" after media portrayals of DID.

DID grew out of the recovered memory therapies of the 70s and 80s- that lead to a lot of false memories. These false memories were often of child sexual abuse and even ritual Satanic abuse. There was a huge moral panic at the time about child abuse and satanic ritual abuse (despite there being no evidence of the latter) which seemed to influence practitioners as they "guided" clients to "repressed" memories. Very sad time for our field.

As a practitioner, I've seen many people claiming to have "alters." None of them actually did. All did meet criteria for DID, and at least two of them met criteria for Histrionic personality disorder. Now, I'm not saying that all clients are lying- practitioners are to fault a lot in this. Its sad, but if I got a referral from a specific social worker, or a specific hospital, I was guaranteed that the person had a DID diagnosis.

To answer your first statement what you call an 'epidemic' occurred because we thought that being as it was recognized by the media that maybe it would open the eyes and minds to people like you that obviously haven't done any genuine study or research you see it makes it alot easier to sleep at night believing it's all in our heads or is the imagination of a therapist. Besides you all will make more money if it is something you believe requires medicine.
So you've seen people that claim to have DID/MPD what proof did you run across that you can say " None of them actually did" ? I bet they just realized you weren't gonna believe them and so they decided to recant. Much like any victim that is pushed in a corner by someone they think really cares. How many of those people still see you?

The problem is that this "epidemic" was seen only in a handful of providers- a small group of providers saw dozens or hundreds of cases, while most never had a single case in their career. That points to a more iatregenic cause- that DID is a phenomenon that grows out of provider preferences and techniques. It cropped up at the same time as the now-bebunked "recovered memory therapy" which had the unfortunate effect of convincing many people that they were abused when they weren't. It even convinced thousands of people that they were the victims of "Satanic Ritual Abuse"- a phenomenon that, while it was a "moral panic" there is not actually any documented cases of this happening. (And Satanists don't actually worship Satan- they are just atheists who follow the philosophy of Hedonism). Satanic Ritual Abuse is it's own syndrome, and it is recognized as a side effect of this unfortunate Recovered Memory Therapy in which therapist's imaginations got away with themselves.

I personally don't profit or suffer financially as a result of my position on DID. I'm a psychotherapist and I don't provide medication, just therapy.

My skepticisms of former patients who claimed DID came as a result of frequent contact and psychological testing. For example, I had a patient who was quite histrionic- she'd be happy and cheerful until she knew a staff member was watching and then she'd be horribly depressed until she thought we couldn't her again. She'd claim to have illnesses that she didn't (we did tests), and then on top of it- had DID. She'd talk about her alters- how she was fully aware of their actions and say for example that her alter made her beat her head against a tub- but would have no bruises. So- obviously I was quite skeptical with this pattern- and it is a pattern I have seen often in those who claim DID. Others- they'd receive psychological testing that would indicate that they were intentionally magnifying and exaggerating their symptoms. Now- to be honest, I never directly confronted their diagnoses. The only person I even slightly challenged on it was someone who I was telling met criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder.

Most (about 75%) of people who report DID meet criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). All the clients I have encountered with reports of DID met criteria for BPD, and at least two also for Histrionic PD. This is because the experience of DID and BPD is so similar- with people with severe BPD experiencing dissociative states- and their extreme mood shifts and unstable sense of identity can lead to feeling like different people at times. Sadly at times therapists can for example encourage them to discuss these different states as if they were different people, rather than just a result of their unstable emotions and sense of self.

Were you not paying attention when I said I have felt with this for as long as I can remember? That I thought it was normal until 04 when after a couple decades this was told to me as a possibility that later was confirmed.
yes positive attention or percieved positive attention is desired by all of us because of the lack of affection a and attention we got from extreme abuse and neglect by people that were suppose to protect us.
Just because you didn't see any bruises doesn't mean they weren't banging there head on the tub. You can bang your head on the tub quite hard multiple times and not leave bruises. I've done such things I never was bold enough to tell anyone out of fear of hospitalization. Your so closed minded.
BPD I'm very familiar with that diagnosis the I hate you don't leave me disorder.. good book. If you actually took the time to look deeper into MPD and BPD you'd know they are nothing alike and have totally different characteristics.
I wish I could go through 'the testing' you speak of I have 104 personalities and although you may think it's a misdiagnosis your wrong and you know how I know? Because I have lived with this for 32 years and I have tried every medication you can take been doing therapy and medication for 10 years. I know that satanic ritual abuse does not entail worshiping Satan that it comes of the philosophy of hedonism. Don't insult my intelligence by assuming that I have not thoroughly done research and studied looking for answers and a resolution. It is not a side effect and there are documented cases of it..again where are you getting your information? You never directly confronted any of them why did you fear your assumptions would be proven false. . How long did you work with any of them and again how many do you still treat. Many questions you seem to avoid answering. I think you would find me a rather interesting study but alas your mind seems to already be made up.

Were you not paying attention when I said I have felt with this for as long as I can remember? That I thought it was normal until 04 when after a couple decades this was told to me as a possibility that later was confirmed.
yes positive attention or percieved positive attention is desired by all of us because of the lack of affection a and attention we got from extreme abuse and neglect by people that were suppose to protect us.
Just because you didn't see any bruises doesn't mean they weren't banging there head on the tub. You can bang your head on the tub quite hard multiple times and not leave bruises. I've done such things I never was bold enough to tell anyone out of fear of hospitalization. Your so closed minded.
BPD I'm very familiar with that diagnosis the I hate you don't leave me disorder.. good book. If you actually took the time to look deeper into MPD and BPD you'd know they are nothing alike and have totally different characteristics.
I wish I could go through 'the testing' you speak of I have 104 personalities and although you may think it's a misdiagnosis your wrong and you know how I know? Because I have lived with this for 32 years and I have tried every medication you can take been doing therapy and medication for 10 years. I know that satanic ritual abuse does not entail worshiping Satan that it comes of the philosophy of hedonism. Don't insult my intelligence by assuming that I have not thoroughly done research and studied looking for answers and a resolution. It is not a side effect and there are documented cases of it..again where are you getting your information? You never directly confronted any of them why did you fear your assumptions would be proven false. . How long did you work with any of them and again how many do you still treat. Many questions you seem to avoid answering. I think you would find me a rather interesting study but alas your mind seems to already be made up.

Not sure what happened--my last reply was supposed to be directed to Ryan Ebersole (as well as anyone else who may be interested). I was saying that my experience as a therapist is so different than his and asked him to consider reading my blog post of a while ago: http://www.mindingtherapy.com/sybil-exposed-multiplicity/.

My mother has Dissociative Identity Disorder. She was sexually abused as a child. I have seen her switch into other alters and she was not the one driving. I met three distinct personalities, they didn't know who I was. DID is very real and I resent this article for dismissing the very real experiences of people who suffer from DID. My mother has been diagnosed as DID by multiple clinicians and it is not just a "fad" diagnosis (she was diagnosed back in the early 90s) and it wasn't just one "naive" therapist but many therapists who drew the same conclusions. Perhaps the writer of this article really did work with people who didn't really have DID, but the problem there might be over diagnosis not the disorder not existing. It's actually a creative way for people who are abused as children to deal with the trauma. My mother has recently integrated the personalities so she no longer has episodes. But I studied diagnosis as recently as six years ago and I learned that DID is a very real disorder (although controversial as a diagnosis). Just because none of your clients actually have DID does not mean the disorder does not exist. It's not exactly the most common disorder.

I don’t see why this diagnosis could not still be accounted as a real condition even if it is in part iatrogenically caused? There are a lot of mental disorders where nobody knows exactly where it came from just that it is there. I don’t really see the harm in treating some one having just inner conflicts and milder forms of trauma reactions, dissociation etc. with the concept of different ego-states or split of personalities that ought to be integrated. There are scheme therapies and congnitive-analytic therapies that approach bpd this way and it has proven effective not disasterious. In DID patients there are still trauma type responses that were there before any therapist intervention and “acting out” that felt for the patient as unreal and as it was just happening to them and a history of trauma. This is of course the case in many other clinical patient groups, but if some can be helped, some problems conceptualized by using this diagnosis and approach of ego-states that need to be integrated then what is the harm? People with dissociative disorders can be cured using this approach and actually can be cured more often than scitzophrenic, bipolar or personality disordered patients.

I for one know intimately a person who was doomed to be a schizophrenic patient on antipsychotic for the rest of her life un-able to work etc. and did not read any books, receive any therapy – but in one psychiatric hospital was given a more thorough testing battery including SCID-R-test and then received this new diagnosis of DID (which she didn’t believe herself for a while) and only after that was given therapy (as scitzophrenia in Finland is not considered treatable but DID is) and has now gone back to her studies, not in need of medication and has gotten rid of all the auditory hallucinations (later named as alters speaking). I don’t really care if it was caused by this one test and not by her childhood, but only that it as phenomenon did excist and as an approach gave her away back to health!

.... and now the reasons behind that condition are more flexibally listed and if some DID cases are in fact more of sociological-type not only caused by trauma - then it doesn't mean that the condition doesn't excist nor that it should not be treated!

Still treating DID has more hope than treating many severe illnesses that these patients at first were receiving treatment for!

I have never had anyone suggest to me that I have DID. I have never been hypnotized. For me, dissociation was a way to survive. My young mind couldn't deal with the abuse so it took me somewhere else.

I do not consider my other identities alters. I view them as fragments of me. Roles that I subconsciously slip into to endure a situation. They do not have their own names. All answer to the same name. Sometimes I will remember what happened after I have slipped into another role. Sometimes I won't. I slip into one of the roles before I even realize it. Now that I have come to the conclusion that I have DID, when I leave that role my reaction is often "Whoa! That was strange."

Before I became aware of DID, I was confused by the frequent lapse in memory. There is no organic cause for my memory problems nor do I have any other mental health problem that would have such a serious effect on my memory. People I know would tell me of things I said or did and I would have no memory of it.

I understand that others do not believe in DID. That is their right. I disagree with them.

I certainly do not disagree with you. You accurately describe dissociating, which is a way of coping with abuse. It is unnecessary to call it DID like it is some kind of thing. It is an adaptation to a horrible situation. And you are correct that they are fragments of you. I can tell you that psychotherapy helps to mourn the unbearable pain and that allows one to be more whole.

For me, acknowledging it as DID is a form of validation. That is important to me to call it that. It explained at lot of things about myself to me. It has helped me to understand that because of the trauma, mentally I splintered instead of maturing the way I most likely would have as mentally healthy child.

My dear that isn't DID it's MPD. MPD scares people so they changed what it's called and tweaked it so it's so vague it sounds different.Were stereotyped and ridiculed because people don't understand so we are portrayed as monsters or crazy in Hollywood and the media.That is why it explains things about yourself so you understand.

i have these same accurances, they seem to be triggered by extreme stress like before a fight or situation that makes me snap to my other self which is not scared of guns, ppl or death, like a super me, a real bad ass, lady's man, gangster/ soldier, that takes guns away from ppl and seems to do moves out of a movie kicking some guys ass or multiple guys ass, picks up the finest ladys, picking locks ect. partys like a rock star and continues til i pass out or put my self out when self becomes aware of me and my family i have present. My other self does shit like in the movies. @ first it hard to remember what happened but then it starts coming back to me a day or 2 later. its hard to talk to anybody about it they look at you like your crazy as you play it off and laugh as a joke. it started when i was young from abuse, as i grew older lifes experiences with street life, drugs, military, and many near death experiences created what i call my protector or angel thats kept me safe and alive thru it all from gang fights to war to drive bys and ect. that lifes thrown at me. til a month ago i hadnt understood it or had any instances for a while since i changed my life style years ago, but got put in a situation that it happened again. i accept it as a good thing but others probaly wouldnt. whats your thought on it?

i have these same accurances, they seem to be triggered by extreme stress like before a fight or situation that makes me snap to my other self which is not scared of guns, ppl or death, like a super me, a real bad ass, lady's man, gangster/ soldier, that takes guns away from ppl and seems to do moves out of a movie kicking some guys ass or multiple guys ass, picks up the finest ladys, picking locks ect. partys like a rock star and continues til i pass out or put my self out when self becomes aware of me and my family i have present. My other self does shit like in the movies. @ first it hard to remember what happened but then it starts coming back to me a day or 2 later. its hard to talk to anybody about it they look at you like your crazy as you play it off and laugh as a joke. it started when i was young from abuse, as i grew older lifes experiences with street life, drugs, military, and many near death experiences created what i call my protector or angel thats kept me safe and alive thru it all from gang fights to war to drive bys and ect. that lifes thrown at me. til a month ago i hadnt understood it or had any instances for a while since i changed my life style years ago, but got put in a situation that it happened again. i accept it as a good thing but others probaly wouldnt. whats your thought on it?

I first want to say thank you to all those that believe!
I have had MPD my whole life but didn't know what it was or what it was called until 2004. I endured Satanic Ritual Abuse from a very young age i also have dealt with incest 4 pregnancies by my father and rape by my father and his pedophile buddies since I was 3. I witnessed infants and children be sacrificed and skinned alive including my baby sister at age 1. She would be 32 this past may (2014). I am 36 as of today June 4 14.
I have 104 personalities That have been there as long as I can remember and way before I ever had any interaction with therapists hospitals or psychologists I thought it was normal.
The problem with the criticisms are that people have never sincerely researched or studied this. Instead we get stereotyped by media mocked scrutinized and persecuted because people don't understand. I have done so much research and there is very little to find. All that really can be found is Biography's of people that have found a way to heal.
I can answer the reason as to why it has not been common but at brief spurts. It's because we have had to adapt to a world of judgement and learn to become more subtle. In these brief times of 'Epidemics' a new generation has emerged that hasn't lost faith in humanity, so we reach out in hopes that maybe this time someone will believe and accept and help us as we all so desperately want. Psychiatrist don't want to support it because guess what it doesn't help there bank accounts as MPD is not helped with any medication. These gullible therapists that is spoke of are most likely the ones that genuinely care and want to help but articles like this shoot them down causing financial burdens because there reputations have been ruined by the allegations of ignorance like this one. So we hide again in the shadows of shame.
This is me reaching out.....

What a blessing it must be for Allan Frances to not believe in or understand the world of D.I.D. I wish I was that lucky to have that kind of ignorance. Not everyone is as lucky, I have "parts" and know without a shadow of a doubt Allan Frances is full of crap. I'm sure most people who have parts would rather not understand the dark underbelly of disassociation. Statistically speaking there are over 30 million people in america alone that disassociate. D.I.D. is just a deeper, more traumatic form of disassociation born out of necessity to keep that human being sane and functioning. EMDR coupled with a great psychologist who knows how to properly administer it is a true life, parts and self saver. I would just like to say to any other person with parts who might be reading this or that article ........it gets better. Please seek the help of a qualified professional who has empathy. You and your parts are worth the effort. May God bless you and your parts on this difficult journey towards wholeness and healing:)

Thank you for speaking out. I am very hopeful of healing and wholeness. Thus far it has been an overwhelming 10 years since I learned what it was I was dealing with had a name and that I want alone in my chaos and pain. I have recently found a new therapist that is trained in EMDR and together we are working toward the process of healing and wholeness.
Again thank you for speaking out
Barb

Barb I think that is so wonderful! I am so happy to hear you found someone that does EMDR because it is a game changer. It truly is amazing......difficult and challenging but your "parts" or "Alters" and yourself deserve this energy, time, healing and compassion. My other secret weapon is having a great friend to process this with. She has also been diagnosed with D.I.D. and we help each other through this painful time of processing trauma. And at times can even be silly about it. Humor and finding things I enjoy like painting, photography, nature all help me cope with this. In fact art therapy is a wonderful tool that helps the parts process trauma especially if they are not able to vocalize the situation because of the pain or whatever the block is. Those things paired with God and the Savior are what have helped me deal, overcome and heal. I am so happy for you and it gets so much better! Good luck to you and your parts.......each part of you is important and valid:) Take care, j

Sexually abused as a child and brought up by a BPD mother, I know why some commentors disagree with the article.

DID or MPD,whatever the term is, it is just a coping mechanism to cope with something horrendous, something that a child, sometimes even an adult is not able to fathom. You either block it all out, or you imagine yourself somewhere else so that you don't have to deal with the sufferings. When the abused grows up, in stressful situations, the dissociation becomes the only way they know to cope with difficult situations.

I believe MPD/DID exist because of my personal experiences. I'm the host with one alter that fronts when I am abused. My abusers have been police officers. It is through my alter I gain that memory. For instance, I went to court to testify and when my case started and the police officer was there I was going to go slap his face for abusing me but suddenly my alter fronted to stop me and informed me that he is not the police officer who abused me. Yep, I switched right there in front of everyone and no one paid any attention to what had occurred in court.

When I became aware of my alters, it was too late and my boss had just fired me because of "inappropriate" behaviour. I had no clue what he was talking about. It took several months for me before the amnesia barrier between my "aggressiv alter" and my started leaking. When I became aware of other alters and how they use the body to speak and behave strangely I really thought I might have Demon Posession and seriously considered suicide. Then I learned, with the help of a qualified therapist, how I can regain control of the body when the violent alter took over. This was really difficult and only achieveable through empathic understanding of the alter's fears. If I hadnt had a good therapist who knew about the latest research in trauma and dissociation rather than those that limit human nature and the Power of the mind with their own intelligence, the body would probably stay at the cemetary.

It is peculiar the number of Men who chorus together to dispute Dissociative Disorders, in relation to abuse of children. These fine fellows loathe the whole spectrum, diagnostics, and evidence ( clinical or otherwise ). Clearly, they are unable to research on a global scale, nor wold they care to do so. They are limited, challenged, cornered, and quite possibly personally biased.